It is three thirty in the morning. The only sound that can be heard is the nightly cricket serenade. You are fast asleep. Your family is asleep throughout the house.
Suddenly, a loud crash jolts you from the depths of comfort and quiet. You leap to your feet, grab your personal protective weapon and, despite your bleary eyed state, you move from the relative safety of your room to see what has happened.
You peak into every room noting that your loved ones are in their beds. They look back at you in confusion and fear. You pass the word that everyone needs to gather into a room, lock the door, and stay down. as you turn to follow them he is standing right there.
He notices you at the same moment that you notice him. He levels his gun and fires. Misses. You aim your firearm but hold your fire. A tense moment passes. You are both standing there pointing dangerous weapons at one another. He speaks.
“Throw down that gun or I will shoot!” The nervous criminal barks.
You already have. you think to yourself.
Behind you everyone that you hold dear is huddled in a room fearing for their safety. Everything you call yours, everything you know as your life is held hostage. If you throw down your weapon, everything is up to the man that disobeyed law and morality to endanger you and yours. If you keep your firearm in hand, someone is going to shoot. Life will be changed. Things will change either way. They must. It isn’t what you wanted. It isn’t what you asked for. It is just what has come to pass.
What do you do?
Today, the United States is facing an interesting circumstance. We know that certain high level office holders and bureaucrats have acted in very dangerous ways toward our current President and to our republic. We know this because we caught them, gun in hand, strolling through the sacred areas of our “safe” Constitutional home, Molotov cocktail at the ready.
And we are armed with the truth. We have the facts. Perhaps not all of them but enough to make some of these people pay for the attempted coup. They have the weapon of future retribution. We know that they won’t think twice about using their weapon. They already have. Names like Lewis “Scooter” Libby and Lieutenant General Michael Flynn remind us that they won’t slow a quick breath before using every weapon in their collective arsenal to destroy those that stand against them.
So, either way things will change. They brought us to this point. They created this stand off. They made this moment a sad, sickening reality. We just have to make our move now. Some say that we should aim for the proverbial gun, like some cheesy 1950’s western (I do love them), because “good guys never use maximum force”. Some say that we attempt to put all players, regardless of their status, through the legal system, and let the chips fall where they may. The nation changes. The world gasps in disbelief. Nothing is ever quite the same again.
When the police arrive…er…When subsequent generations judge us for our decisions in this matter, we will likely be judged harshly, in either case. If doing what is right, what is just, if truth matters, we have a clear answer. If truth must step aside so that we can feel safe with the armed intruder, well, we will feel safer for a little while. We will feel like the poor fellow, sound asleep, as the armed and dangerous intruder moves through his house, doing what he wishes, to whom he wishes. Why get out of bed if you can lie still and let fate find you comfortably lounging on dreams and fantasies? Truth, you know, changes things. We can’t very well have that. Can we?